Gender roles are culturally influenced stereotypes which create expectations for appropriate behavior for males and females. Gender roles are influenced by the media, family, environment, and society. A child’s understanding of gender roles impacts how they socialize with their peers and form relationships.

Gender identity typically develops in stages: Around age two: Children become conscious of the physical differences between boys and girls. Before their third birthday: Most children can easily label themselves as either a boy or a girl. By age four: Most children have a stable sense of their gender identity.

Gender roles influence adolescents’ self-esteem. During adolescence, girls appear to be more vulnerable than boys) to the negative psychological health effects of stress; they present significantly higher levels of adaptation, depressive symptomatology and eating disorders.

Feeling able to show your true gender identity is important to your emotional and mental health. There are lots of possible gender identities out there! People can identify as one of the binary genders, as moving between genders, as no gender or as another gender altogether.

Factors that Influence Gender Identity Biological factors that may influence gender identity include pre- and post-natal hormone levels and genetic makeup. Social factors include ideas regarding gender roles conveyed by family, authority figures, mass media, and other influential people in a child’s life.

In many communities, gender inequality is one important root cause of children’s poor development in the early years. Gender discrimination together with son preference mean that young girls receive less nutrition, opportunities to play and access early learning than young boys.

Parents provide children with their first lessons about gender. Possible ways that parents might influence children’s gender development include role modeling and encouraging different behaviours and activities in sons and daughters.

Family risk factors: Maternal depression or mental illness in the family, parental substance abuse, parent incarceration, parental unemployment, family violence and poverty. Risk factors within the child: Fussy temperament, developmental delay and serious health issues.

Social and emotional development in the early years, also referred to as early childhood mental health, refers to children’s emerging capacity to: Experience, regulate and express a range of emotions. Develop close, satisfying relationships with other children and adults. Actively explore their environment and learn.

Promoting Young Children’s Social and Emotional Health

1. Are usually in a positive mood.
2. Listen and follow directions.
3. Have close relationships with caregivers and peers.
4. Care about friends and show interest in others.
5. Recognize, label, and manage their own emotions.
6. Understand others’ emotions and show empathy.
7. Express wishes and preferences clearly.

At around 15 months of age empathy and self- conscious emotions emerge. A child will react by looking upset when he sees someone cry or feel pride when applauded for doing a task.

Recognising your emotions and learning to manage them is one of the most important skills you can have. In fact people who are good at noticing how they feel and can calm themselves down or adjust their behaviour are more likely to do well in life, have healthy relationships and manage difficulties and set backs.

Emotions can play an important role in how we think and behave. The emotions we feel each day can compel us to take action and influence the decisions we make about our lives, both large and small.

People often hide emotions to protect their relationships. When someone you care about does something upsetting, you might choose to hide your annoyance. If people have manipulated your emotions in the past, you might fear trusting someone new with your feelings.

Why Do Men Hide Their Emotions? There’s no argument that women are more likely to show their emotions than men. From an early age, men are conditioned to believe that expressing their feelings is out of character with the male identity. Doing so can ruin their image of being strong and stoic.

Emotions and feelings are a vital part of human connection. Some people are able to turn off their emotions in order to protect themselves. For others, emotional numbing is unintended. It may even be part of a larger issue, like depression or a personality disorder.

Completely normal “Crying is a very healthy expression of feelings such as sadness and disappointment. If we tell boys not to cry, they may begin to suppress, avoid or shut down these emotions, as they are not encouraged to express them,” explains Forman.